Katherine has made London her home.
But her English-born daughter, Violet, won't let her forget
she's Canadian.
Violet is very English, and she pulls rank.
She'll correct my Canadian accent all the time!
She's like... "I'm very sorry about my mummy, she's Canadian."
And it's like... I just, sort of, naturally defer to her.
It's the accent, really.
I would like to be accepted by the upper echelon
of British society.
Sure, I would like to find a buried castle and some gold.
Something that's going to put my daughter in her place.
She is the English rose in our house, and I want to show her
that I've got something besides Canadian.
Something that perhaps my daughter, Violet, will respect.
I've come to Toronto, Canada, because I felt like I should talk
to my mum about her family,
and where they come from,
because that's most of the mystery with us.
Katherine is looking for English roots
to share with her daughter, Violet.
She knows she won't find them among her father's ancestors.
I know all about my dad's family.
It's like, "Once upon a time, Tipperary, the end."
They're just super Irish, and I love them,
and I know where they came from.
But English ancestry is a possibility, on her mum's side,
Hello?
Hello! How are you?
Oh, I'm so happy to see you!
Come on in!
What are you taking in your coffee these days, Katherine? Easy.
Milk that's not milk.
I have fake milk!
DOORBELL RINGS
There's the poutine! Do you want some?
Whenever Katherine comes to Canada, she orders poutine, a traditional
Canadian dish of chips, cheese curds and gravy.
Thank you!
Needs vinegar.
I have vinegar. Yeah!
How much do you want?
All of it!
People really don't get how good it is.
In America, I ask for white vinegar, and they're like,
"You gonna wash the windows?"
So, thank you for digging out these photos.
I loved my grandma.
That was really hard for me, when she died.
But I was 15, so I was, kind of,
too cool to go to the hospital and stuff.
I don't think we look alike,
but people have said that to me.
Yeah, a little.
And she and her mum were close?
Oh, yes. You never met Nanny, she's your great-grandmother. Mm-hm.
Her name was Beatrice Adelia Sill.
Still searching for English roots,
Katherine is following a different
branch of her maternal family
to another part of Canada.
Her five times great-grandparents,
Giles Hosier and Grace Newell,
lived in Bonavista, Newfoundland,
in the late 1700s.
The island of Newfoundland is Canada's easternmost province
and was the nearest port for ships sailing from Britain
to trade in the vital 18th-century commodity -
cod.
Cod fishing put Newfoundland on the map,
drawing many people from Ireland, Scotland and England to settle here.
To find out about her five times great grandparents,
Katherine is meeting historian Angela Duffett.
Thank you for driving on our Canadian girls road trip!
You are most welcome.
So, it's my understanding that my five times great-grandparents,
Giles Hosier and Grace Newell, might be from Bonavista.
That is correct!
I grew up on a street called Newell Street.
Yeah. Full circle! I know! I love that.
I don't know if it has anything to do with Grace Newell, but...
Wouldn't that be something? Yeah, it would!
I'm pleasantly surprised by Bonavista.
It's more beautiful than I thought it would be.
What can you tell me about my five times great-grandparents
who lived here?
So, Grace and Giles lived here, and this is a document explaining
a bit about what they did here.
Have a look. Thank you.
This is an excerpt from a survey of what were known as
fishing rooms in Bonavista. Oh!
And on the right-hand column, you're looking at a description
of the fishing room that Grace and Giles owned.
They owned a fishing room?
What's a fishing room?
So, although we call it a room, think much bigger.
These were usually owned by what we would call a merchant family,
who own merchant premises, and traded with the fishermen
who would have used their room to land their catch
and to prepare their catch.
Seems like a really hard job.
And that was the main industry - obviously, we're on a peninsula,
it was all about the fishing?
Absolutely, yeah.
Katherine, we're now standing in the churchyard of Christ Church
Anglican Church in Bonavista.
And your five times great-grandfather,
Giles, is buried here.
First row, towards the fence.
Good row, first row!
OK.
Oh, Canada...
First row...
This one?
That's it!
I've got a photo here,
taken before the gravestone had eroded a bit.
"Memory...
"In memory of Giles Hosier, who died the 3rd of November, 1812.
"Also, William, son of the above,
"who was lost the 7th of October.
"Also, of Giles, another son of the above Giles Hosier,
"who died on the 8th of December, 1812."
So the three men died within a month of each other,
almost to the day. The father and two sons.
That's so tragic.
I'll show you another document here.
This is Giles' death notice
from the newspaper.
It's at the bottom here.
"Giles Hosier, of Poole in the county of Dorset, England,
"but late of Bonavista, Newfoundland."
So he was from Dorset.
I knew we were English at some point!
Yeah! And I really love Dorset!
I thought that I was going to be super English,
I thought we'd go maybe two generations back.
But now I know my great-great-great- great-great-grandfather is the one
who was born in England,
and then came here!
So, actually, I'm a lot more Canadian than I thought.
But still English!
Giles Hosier is the one who first came to Canada.
He had such a tragic ending,
losing his son, and losing his livelihood
and then losing his own life.
Now I know how far back my family actually goes in Canada,
I can take back that story to my daughter, Violet,
and say, "I am a little bit English, just like you."
I told my mum everything about my five times great-grandparents,
I told her we were in Bonavista and she wanted to sing you a song.
It's a really old Canadian song, about old-time life in Bonavista,
and apparently every Canadian my mother's age knows it.
It's a pretty sweet jam...
PHONE RINGS
Hello?
Hi, Mum, will you sing that song again?
I's the B'y? Yeah.
# I's the b'y that builds the boat
# And I's the b'y that sails her
# I's the b'y that catches the fish
# And takes them home to Lizer
# I don't want your maggoty fish
# That's no good for winter
# I could buy as good as that
# Down in Bonavista. #
That song? Yeah, good song, Mum, thanks!
Bye.
My family spent, what, 230 years in Canada?
And then I - I brought us home.